Fire escape devices that are flexible, or partially flexible, and are designed to be attached to a building to enable the occupants of the building to descend to a lower floor or to the ground are well known. Most of these structures are rope ladders or are pieces of rope that are attached to the interior of the building near a window so that they can be dropped out of the window and used by the occupant to make his descent.
There is also a body of art showing flexible or semi-flexible devices used as toys or exercising devices. U.S. Pat. No. 3,642,277 discloses a semi-flexible rope-type article that is used as a jump rope or as an exercising device. A series of cylindrical members are positioned along the entire length of the device. U.S. Pat. No. 3,782,718, discloses a rope climbing machine in which a rope is moved at a predetermined speed to allow a climber to climb up or down the rope while remaining close to the floor. U.S. Pat. No. 3,643,942, discloses a play device in which rotatable plastic balls are positioned on a dowel extending from the top to the bottom of the sides of the structure. U.S. Pat. No. 1,676,061, discloses an exercise device which consists of a rope with a series of knots therein attached to a horizontally extending support member.